As we approach the Holy Week, let us focus on prayer, works of mercy and fasting. This period of quarantine amid the Corona virus pandemic is a good time to reflect about our relationship with God, how this can be renewed and strengthened.

Furthermore, we should continually ask God in prayer and the intercession of the saints to end this pandemic that resulted in suffering and death of our brothers and sisters around the world.

Image Credit : Santa Monica Church

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday. It is the beginning of Lent for Western Christian churches. It is a day of penitence to clean the soul before the Lent fast.

Churchgoers are marked with a  cross of ashes on the forehead as a sign of penance and mortality.

TRADITIONAL ASH WEDNESDAY PRAYER

God our Father, you create us from the dust of the earth.

Grant that these ashes may be for us a sign of our penitence, and a symbol of our mortality.

Amen

Ash Wednesday is a the beginning of Lent. It a  season of reparation and reflection before the celebration of Easter.

Easter Vigil of Holy Week 2014

The blessing of the fire outside the church.

The Easter vigil began.

The blessing of the water. . . . 

and the Paschal candle.

The Holy Communion.

Converts, young and old were baptized.

The Paschal candle.

The lectionary.

JM after the Easter Vigil.

Good Friday of Holy Week 2014

Good Friday Prayer

O Jesus, Who by reason of Thy burning love for us 
hast willed to be crucified 
and to shed Thy Most Precious Blood 
for the redemption and salvation of our souls, 
look down upon us here gathered together 
in remembrance of Thy most sorrowful Passion and Death, 
fully trusting in Thy mercy; 
cleanse us from sin by Thy grace, 
sanctify our toil, 
give unto us and unto all those who are dear to us our 
daily bread, 
sweeten our sufferings, 
bless our families, 
and to the nations so sorely afflicted, 
grant Thy peace, 
which is the only true peace, 
so that by obeying Thy commandments 
we may come at last to the glory of heaven.

Amen.

Prayer from Catholic Online

Holy Thursday of the Holy Week 2014

Laymen representing the twelve apostles.

 The altar of Chair of Saint Pete's Church, Bangkok. Today, Catholics all over the world commemorate the institution of the Eucharist.

 The laymen line up for the Washing of the Feet.

Our assistant parish priest, Father Joseph re-enacts the washing of the feet of the twelve apostles.

The concelebrated mass on Holy THursday.

The offertory.

Prayer over the gifts.

The priests and the faithful pray over the Blessed Sacrament.

The Repository of the Chair of Saint Peter's Church, Bangkok.

Photos taken at Chair of Saint Peter's Church,
Putthamonthon Sai 1, Bangkok.

John 8:1-11

Woman Caught in Adultery 

Sebastiano Conca 1741

Christies of London

“Let the one among you who is without sin 
be the first to throw a stone at her.”

John 8:7

The Beginning of Lent

O good and dearest Jesus, I kneel before your face. With all my heart I ask you to place in my heart more faith, hope and charity. Give me a true sorrow for my sins and a strong will to do better With great sorrow and grief I look upon your five wounds and think about them. Before my eyes are the words that the prophet David said of you, O good Jesus:

 "They have pierced my hands and feet They have numbered all my bones."

Prayer Source
 Holy Lent by Eileen O'Callaghan
The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1975